The Symposium will be an exciting opportunity for CFD researchers to share
ideas and to explore new concepts and innovations.
Based on abstracts already submitted (> 60), we are delighted to report
that there will be a good mix of top quality papers from industry,
government labs and academe with very strong representation from Europe,
Pacific Rim, Asia.
Symposium is conducted on bi-annual schedule (next is scheduled to 2004)
and this time it is organized by the ASME jointly with Japaneese Society of
Mechanical Engineers (JSME)and Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
KSME).

We expect to have 60-80 papers presented at the Symposium
and another 100+ papers presented on fluid, thermal and stress related
symposiums. Best papers will be recommended for the journal publications.

Due to the many requests for extensions, deadline (for Americas only) for receipt of abstracts WAS MOVED to January 25, 2002. Corresponding
deadline for the reception of draft papers is moved to Feb 28th.

By adding computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to its product development process, Blender Products was able to design a new HVAC air mixer in four weeks, down from the one year required for its previous mixer. Designing that product had required many rounds of prototype testing, each taking several months, to determine how efficiently the device mixed two streams of air. For the new mixer, the company ran multiple CFD analyses to evaluate different design iterations in software. Each iteration took less than a week. The results guided designers as to what elements could be removed to reduce manufacturing costs while maintaining mixing efficiency. Nearly all prototype testing was eliminated, allowing Blender Products to quickly capitalize on a new market opportunity. The company also uses CFD analysis to evaluate how its mixers will work when added to existing installations. This formerly required testing of a scale model, a process that took two to three months. The company now accomplishes the evaluation without a scale model and is done in one week.

Philadelphia Mixers used MixSim, a dedicated mixing analysis software package, to solve a problem with a pH adjustment system in a baffled mixing tank. The complete analysis, which required several simulations, took only one day, considerably less than the week or more that would have been required if general-purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and grid generation tools had been used. Most of this time would have been required to build the model because of the complex geometry of the system and the fact that it contained both stationary and moving parts. The mixing-specific software used set up the model automatically in response to parameters entered by the user. "After I entered a few specifications, the software created the geometry and the analysis mesh in less than 5 minutes," says Wojciech Wyczalkowski, director of technology at Philadelphia Mixers. After the first analysis showed the reason for the fluctuating pH, Wyczalkowski ran seven more analyses to improve the design. By the end of one day, he had an optimized solution that the customer has since implemented successfully.

A recent Desktop Engineeringarticle describes how CFD software has migrated from an "experts only" tool to one which design engineers can apply during the design process.

The primary obstacle for the use of CFD in design has been that
design engineers are required to perform a variety of tasks - only a small part of which might be analysis.

“So the problem was that these engineers were using these tools every once in a while,” says Ed Williams, president of Blue Ridge Numerics. “You’re trying to teach them all these complicated things that they are going to forget the next time they go to use it a month later.”

Credit for the change is given to the great advancements in grid generation in the past 20 years, along with ease-of-use enhancements by the flow solver vendors. Tighter integration with CAD has also been a big factor in making the tools easier to use. The newest version of Blue Ridge Numerics CFdesign software, for instance, was designed to be tightly integrated with Pro/Engineer from PTC. The software launches directly from within Pro/E and works directly on the Pro/E geometry.